Genealogy of Morals

Friedrich Nietzsche

Contextualization

Preface

Nietzsche is difficult to read because he demands that we overturn or
suspend many of the assumptions that our very reasoning relies upon. He
is one of the Western tradition's deepest thinkers precisely because he
calls so much into question. If we can come to understand Nietzsche's
genealogical method, his doctrine of the will to power, and his
perspectivism as all linked, his arguments will become much easier to
follow.

In Nietzsche's distinction between a thing and its meaning, we find the
initial doubt with which Nietzsche unravels so many of our assumptions.
We are generally tempted to see things as having inherent meanings. For
instance, punishment is at once the act of punishing and the reason
behind the punishment. However, Nietzsche argues, these things have had
different meanings at different times. For instance, the act of
punishment has been at times a celebration of one's power, at times an
act of cruelty, at times a simple tit-for-tat. We cannot understand a
thing, and we certainly cannot understand its origin, if we assume that
it has always held the same meaning.

Central to Nietzsche's critique, then, is an attempt at genealogy that will show
the winding and undirected route our different moral concepts have taken to
arrive in their present shape. Morality is generally treated as sacred because
we assume that there is some transcendental ground for our morals, be it God,
reason, tradition, or something else. Yet contrary to our assumption that
"good," "bad," or "evil" have always had the same meanings, Nietzsche's
genealogical method shows how these terms have evolved, shattering any illusion
as to the continuity or absolute truth of our present moral concepts.

Because they can have different, even contradictory, meanings over the course of
their long life spans, Nietzsche does not believe that concepts or things are
the fundamental stuff that makes up reality. Instead, he looks beneath these
things to see what drives the different meanings that they adopt over time.
Hiding beneath he finds force and will. All of existence, Nietzsche asserts, is
a struggle between different wills for the feeling of power. This "will to
power" is most evident on a human level, where we see people constantly
competing with one another, often for no other purpose than to feel superior to
those that they overcome.

That a thing has a meaning at all means that there is some will dominating it,
bending it toward a certain interpretation. That a thing may have different
meanings over time suggests that different wills have come to dominate it. For
instance, the concept of "good" was once dominated by the will of healthy,
strong barbarians, and had the opposite meaning that it does now that it is
dominated by the will of weak, "sick" ascetics.

According to Nietzsche, then, a belief in an absolute truth or an absolute
anything is to give in to one particular meaning, one particular interpretation
of a thing. It is essentially to allow oneself to be dominated by a particular
will. A will that wishes to remain free will shun absolutes of all kinds and
try to look at a matter from as many different perspectives as possible in order
to gain its own. This doctrine that has deeply influenced postmodern thought is
called "perspectivism."

Nietzsche's inquiries are thus conducted in a very irreverent spirit.
Nothing is sacred, nothing is absolute, nothing, we might even say, is
true. Our morality is not a set of duties passed down from God but an
arbitrary code that has evolved as randomly as the human species itself.
The only constant is that we, and everything else, are constantly
striving for more power, and the only constant virtue is a will that is
powerful, and free from bad conscience, hatred, and ressentiment.

Nietzsche's main project in the Genealogy is to question the
value of our morality. Ultimately, he argues that our present morality
is born out of a resentment and hatred that was felt toward anything
that was powerful, strong, or healthy. As such, he sees our present
morality as harmful to the future health and prosperity of our species.
While the "blonde beasts" and barbarians of primitive master morality
are animalistic brutes, at least they are strong and healthy. On the
other hand, our present ascetic morality has "deepened" us by turning
our aggressive instincts inward and seeing ourselves as a new wilderness
to struggle against. Nietzsche's ideal is to maintain this depth and
yet not be ashamed of our animal instincts or of the life that glows
within us.